


Quantum Mechanics

by ladyphlogiston



Series: Quantum of Luna [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hogwarts Sixth Year, New Magic, Research, compassion - Freeform, yelling at Dumbledore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-09 15:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16452860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyphlogiston/pseuds/ladyphlogiston
Summary: Hermione and Luna continue to explore the idea of Flow magic, and Hermione is determined to help Harry.  Luna decides to help someone else while they're at it. Sequel to Discovery of Quantum and will make more sense if you read that first.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote half of this about six months ago, and the boredom after we finished Eliot Spencer and the Hogwarts Job inspired me to dig it out and finish it. I think I'm pleased. Writing Luna is hard, but I think I did okay. My husband beta'd, because he is wonderful, so all mistakes are his.

Hermione thumped the last book onto the pile on her table in the library. Even after a couple of weeks of flagrantly abusing the Restricted Section pass McGonagall had given her at the beginning of the year, she still couldn't find anything about horcruxes.

She was certain they were significant. She had thoroughly grilled Harry after each of his private lessons with Dumbledore, and this was the first term she hadn't known. Slughorn wanted to hide his connection to them, and Dumbledore wanted to discover it. Knowing what Slughorn had said was no doubt important, but just knowing what they _were_ would be a start.

Hermione wished, briefly but intensely, that she was a Ravenclaw. Not that she didn't love being a Gryffindor, but she'd heard that Ravenclaw maintained a proper card catalog of the library. For that matter, she wished that Madam Pince would agree to introduce one, but Madam Pince had never heard of indexing and didn't hold with new-fangled notions.

At any rate, she hadn't found it yet.

Hermione sent the books to the cart to be reshelved and packed up her things. She was supposed to meet with Luna before dinner, to spend some time developing their Arithmantic model of Flow. It was pleasant, having a friend who was just as eager to explore the theory of magic as she was. She could ask Luna to check the card catalog, but she wasn't sure Luna would consider it important enough. Luna tended to ignore things that didn't interest her, which tended to be bad for Hermione's blood pressure.

Hermione headed up to the seventh floor. The Room of Requirement was increasingly busy these days, but Luna seemed to have fairly good luck getting in. Whenever Hermione went there first, it was always occupied and locked.

Luna was in the hall when Hermione arrived. The Room must be occupied already. That was disappointing, but they could work on their analysis in an empty classroom, even if they couldn't try certain experiments.

"Can you tell who is in there?" Hermione asked Luna, once she was close enough. Luna could "hear" magic, which seemed to be a sort of extrasensory understanding of the magic going on around her. Hermione was uncertain whether it was unique to Luna, or just something most wizards never noticed. Sometimes she thought she could "hear" something—like a deep resonance in her mind—but she wasn't at all sure she wasn't imagining it.

"They're not at home," Luna replied. She turned and led the way to a secret passage they'd discovered behind a portrait at the end of the hall. It led to a large vacant classroom which they had gotten into the habit of using when the Room of Requirement was unavailable.

Once inside, Luna conjured the clear glass boards she favored and began copying their most recent Arithmantic model onto it. Hermione busied herself with putting up the privacy charms she'd begun using for these sessions.

The charms done, Hermione turned to Luna, biting her lip nervously. "Luna, have you ever heard of horcruxes?"

Luna blinked at her, and Hermione hurried to explain. "They're terribly important, and I can't find anything about them in the library. I'm afraid I can't tell you why they're important—I would if I could, but it's not my secret. I was just wondering..." she trailed off.

"The Ancient Egyptian mages used the hair of Pythagorean Felixes to keep babies safe from Woozles," Luna commented.

Hermione sighed. Obviously Luna wasn't interested. She turned to the board and pulled out some notes she'd made last night.

"I was thinking we should add a variable for sleep quality," she suggested. "Lack of sleep affects both energy and concentration, after all."

Luna's eyes lit up. "Sleep and waking echoes morning and evening. The body knows whether it is in harmony or not, even if the mind does not."

"Exactly! That's why I love getting up to go to the library first thing in the morning! The sunlight helps regulate my circadian rhythms, too," Hermione agreed.

"The sunshine tastes best in the wild," Luna replied, copying Hermione's notes onto the board.

\------

Hermione and Luna parted in the Great Hall at dinnertime. Hermione didn't see her boys at the Gryffindor table, so she sat by the Patil twins.

"Why did you come in with Loony Lovegood?" Parvati asked curiously.

"Her name is Luna, and we're working on something together," Hermione replied.

"I see she's got that necklace back," Padma commented.

Luna had been wearing her mother's necklace, but Hermione was surprised that Padma recognized it. Luna had said it had been lost for some time.

"What necklace?" Parvati asked.

"The necklace she's wearing. It was in the cabinet over the fireplace in our common room for ages."

There was a sinking feeling in Hermione's stomach. "How did it get there?" she asked.

"The fifth-year prefect took it away from her when she came as a first year. Said it was too valuable for her to keep with her. She put it in the cabinet and said she could have it when she graduated."

"...but she could access it whenever she wanted, right?" Hermione asked.

Padma shrugged. "Shouldn't think so. That cabinet has some pretty strong magical locks on it."

The sinking feeling in Hermione's stomach had become a cold knot. "What about when the prefect graduated?"

"I think she took it with her. I'm not sure. It wasn't in the cabinet anymore, at any rate." Padma looked at Hermione, puzzled. "Does it matter? She's got it now, and two years earlier than she should."

Hermione grit her teeth together. Punching Padma and shouting wouldn't accomplish anything.

Parvati squealed—some boy had come in—and grabbed Padma's arm to point him out. Hermione looked at her plate, but she wasn't hungry anymore. She quietly excused herself and headed for the library.

\------

Felicia Urquhart. Hermione remembered who she was (she'd been deeply invested in becoming a prefect even then, after all, and she was nothing if not thorough) but hadn't sought her out or spoken to her. If she'd known then that a prefect was bullying first years, she would have gone straight to McGonagall. Of course, McGonagall might not have done anything. Harry said Luna had been pinning up signs asking for the return of her things, including her shoes. If the teachers hadn't intervened in response to a student being deprived of her shoes in winter, why would they respond to the mere theft of a necklace?

Hermione sighed. Sometimes she hated this school. She knew that she had to maintain proper respect for the faculty, as part of the unspoken social contract that allowed schools to be orderly, safe spaces. She just wished the faculty was willing to hold up their end of the invisible bargain.

But for now, she wanted to know about Felicia Urquhart. An archived _Daily Prophet_ showed that she had married Rowan Rackharrow two years ago, and that they lived in Hertfordshire by the Lea River. A wizarding genealogy showed that her uncle was a famous warding researcher, so wherever she was, it was probably impossible to access.

Well, Hermione wasn't the smartest witch in the school for nothing. She would just have to find a way in.


	2. Chapter 2

"Why didn't you tell me about Felicia Urquhart?" Hermione asked Luna the next time they met. Luna had successfully secured the Room of Requirement today, so Hermione was practicing arpeggios on a piano while Luna set up their notes.

"I gave her a radish seed hair clip to chase off the Bilbotubers," said Luna.

"No, I mean why didn't you tell me she stole your mother's necklace?" Hermione asked.

Luna stared at her, then turned back to the clear glass board. "With the inclusion of the sleep, sunshine, and clothing fabric variables, the model appears to balance."

"Luna, answer my question! She bullied you when you were just a first year, when she was supposed to protect you! Why didn't you tell anyone?" Hermione stood up from the piano, trying to make eye contact with Luna.

Luna's chin quivered slightly, but she didn't meet Hermione's eye. "The sound is still wrong, though. The harmonics are missing."

Hermione clenched her fist. Her instinct was to keep pushing, but Luna clearly didn't want to discuss it. And Hermione really valued Luna's friendship. She took a deep breath.

"Okay, we can look for harmonic factors. I've also been considering the practical applications of the Flow Theory. Retrieving your necklace was clearly spontaneous magic, but it must be possible to use Flow to accomplish predictable results."

Luna looked at her for a moment, with a soft smile Hermione had never seen before. After a moment, Luna conjured a new glass board and pulled an old notebook from her book bag.

"Horcruxes are a horizontal entanglement of the spirit-soul amalgamation," Luna said, opening the book and holding it out.

Hermione took it. The page was covered in closely-written notes in a familiar handwriting. "Your mother studied horcruxes?"

"She made me promise not to experiment with necromancy, so I haven't," Luna replied. She cocked her head to the side. "Also, it's vile."

Hermione, skimming Pandora Lovegood's notes on the ritual, shuddered in agreement. The next page, however, had an Arithmantic model of the magical construct of a Horcrux, and Hermione promptly copied that onto the board.

"It's an attempt at immortality, according to these notes," Hermione exclaimed. This, after all these years, might be the answer for how Voldemort had survived and come back to life. He'd tied his soul to something, and if they could find that and destroy it, he could be killed. Possibly he would be killed instantly, depending on how the soul magic worked...

Coming back to the present, Hermione realized that Luna was acting more oddly than usual. She was staring at the horcrux model, but she seemed to be staring through it, and her head was slightly cocked. She seemed unusually focused, even if she wasn't looking at anything.

"Luna?" Hermione asked.

Luna didn't answer immediately. "The problem with a voice crying in the wilderness," she said eventually, "is that it's in a wilderness of voices."

Hermione sighed.

Luna touched part of the model on the board, humming a few notes, and fell silent again.

Suddenly it clicked in Hermione's mind. "You...are you listening, Luna? Can you hear a horcrux?"

"Can't you?" Luna asked softly.

"I'm not nearly as good at it as you are," Hermione muttered, but she fell silent and listened anyway. She thought for a moment that she could hear something, but it seemed to be a giant tangle of vague sensation and she wasn't able to discern anything coherent.

"I require a horcrux, please," Luna said into the air.

Nothing happened.

"You think it's in the Room?" Hermione asked.

Luna's eyes lit up. "It's a puzzle!" she exclaimed. "We must study the habits and hobbies of the Dark Lord, and deduce the key conditions to unlock the hiding place. Does he like peonies, do you think? Or perhaps you need to call for his favorite pudding..."

Hermione listened to Luna ramble about Voldemort's possible likes and dislikes, but somehow her approach seemed wrong. Voldemort did not have hobbies, not really. Hermione reviewed what she knew about Voldemort, from Harry's stories and the few things Ginny had let fall over the years.

"I think," Hermione said slowly, "that you may be giving him too much credit. He was smart enough to charm the horcrux against simple summoning, but he's just not complex enough to come up with something truly interesting."

Hermione paced for a few minutes, then stopped. "Ask the Room for a hiding place," she ordered Luna.

Luna blinked at her, and sighed in disappointment. "I require a hiding place," she said.

The Room shivered and reorganized itself around them. Both girls had to jump to avoid the staggering towers of junk that sprang up around them, and Hermione was momentarily swathed in a sheet of moth-eaten silk that landed on her head.

Hermione pushed the silk to the floor and looked around, astonished by the immense collection of things the Room had produced. She reached out to pick up a book on a shelf near her elbow, but jumped back when Luna swatted her hand.

"Ow! Luna, what was that for?" Hermione asked, rubbing her hand.

"No touching, no magic," Luna said firmly, looking her in the eye.

Hermione swallowed her protests. It only now occurred to her that the things in here could have all sorts of hexes or curses on them, and she had no idea how to tell what was safe and what wasn't.

Luna dug into her pocket and pulled out a large piece of paper which was folded into what looked like the origami fortune tellers Hermione remembered from grade school. With atypically crisp movements, Luna folded up three of the corners, then opened and closed it three times. A ball of light flew out each time, one yellow and two red, and they settled into a slow orbit around Luna and Hermione.

"What are those?" Hermione asked.

"A Cursebreaker's Canary and two Red Shirts," Luna replied. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and set off down the aisle.

Hermione hurried to keep up, thinking. A Cursebreaker's Canary must be the magical equivalent of a coal miner's canary: it was there to provide warning of invisible danger. And a Red Shirt, she realized with surprise, was a term from the Star Trek community, referring to an unnamed crew member who would probably die before the end of the episode. Luna's cryptozoological expeditions with her father must have been better planned than Hermione had realized.

Luna, meanwhile, was moving carefully but steadily among the piles of things. Hermione picked her way through, wishing she could stop and examine the books and chests they passed more closely. A book titled _To Love A Dark Lord_ , with a cover depicting a witch with torn robes barely covering an improbable figure, caught her eye and reminded her of an earlier question.

"Luna, what makes you think this is about Voldemort?" Hermione asked. She'd been very careful not to mention anything besides the bare word "horcrux."

"Who else could it be?" Luna asked. She paused in front of a large black and gold cabinet, gazing at it steadily with slightly unfocused eyes. After a minute she turned and moved on, and stopped in front of a set of shelves with what appeared to be a tarnished and rather squashed tiara on the top shelf.

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," Luna murmured, reaching out for the tiara. Before Hermione could stop her, one of the Red Shirts darted between Luna's hand and the tiara and burst into flames.

Luna pulled her hand back and sucked on her burned finger, staring at the tiara with eyes that were even wider than usual.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, coming up and putting a hand on Luna's shoulder.

Luna nodded. "The diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. It's been lost for centuries."

"And it's a horcrux?" Hermione asked.

Luna shrugged. "The melody is clear."

"What do we do now? Can we move it?"

Luna frowned and dug into her pocket again. "I have a Bag of Holding, I think, but I didn't bring a Poking Stick today."

Luna pulled out a small cloth bag, turned it upside down, and shook it. A pile of sticks, rocks, leaves, candy wrappers, and other detritus fell out.

"Is there an expansion charm on the bag? I've read about those," Hermione asked. The pile of stuff was considerably larger than the bag that had contained it.

Luna ignored her question and continued to search her pockets.

"What are you looking for?" Hermione asked. When Luna ignored that question too, Hermione thought back over the last few minutes and realized that Luna was looking for something to use to push the tiara into the bag, since it wasn't safe to touch or levitate.

"Can you just use one of those sticks?" she suggested, pointing at the pile at their feet.

Luna frowned, but knelt to examine the sticks. "This one was a gift from a bowtruckle," she murmured, setting it aside, "and this one I used in a Rite of Yonic Balance, and this one is from a fae-blessed ash, harvested under a full moon, but this one I think might be safe," she concluded, holding up the fourth stick. "I had thought it was broken by a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, but it was really just cut by another expedition."

Hermione watched Luna use the apparently un-magical stick to maneuver the tiara into her bag. "....Aren't we a little young to be practicing sex magic?"

Luna glanced at Hermione, but didn't respond. She carefully closed and tied the Bag of Holding, then stepped back to stand next to Hermione. "I require our normal study room, please, but don't move my things."

The piles of junk disappeared and the Room returned to a normal size. Luna pulled out her wand, conjured a normal bag, and collected the things that had been in her Bag of Holding.

"We found a horcrux! We should bring it to the Headmaster immediately!" Hermione cried.

Luna lifted her head and stared at Hermione, calm and unblinking.

"Don't you think so?" Hermione asked uncertainly.

Luna looked down. "The Headmaster's nose is crumpled," she said softly, "from the many times he has sought to enter a room before opening the door. I wish your nose to remain undeformed."

Hermione opened her mouth to object (wasn't Professor Dumbledore's decisive leadership a good thing?) but stopped herself. Luna was highly intelligent, after all, and had been working hard to stay focused on their conversations. She probably had a point to make.

Hermione's eyes fell on the notebook containing Pandora Lovegood's notes on horcruxes. Luna's approach to magic might not be taught at Hogwarts, but Hermione had already seen how valuable it was. And Dumbledore, after all, set the curriculum for what was taught at Hogwarts, and what references were in the library. Perhaps Luna worried that Dumbledore would decide what to do without considering all the possibilities.

Hermione began to pace. What were Dumbledore's qualifications? He had Masteries in Transfiguration, Alchemy, and Dueling, Hermione knew. That much was in _Hogwarts, A History_. He'd gotten exceptionally high NEWT scores in Potions, Charms, History, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, but as far as Hermione knew, he hadn't pursued those any further. After all, he'd led the fighting in two wars, defeated a Dark Lord, taught at Hogwarts for decades before becoming Headmaster, and held political positions as well. He wouldn't have had time to delve into the mysteries of every branch of magic available. Three Masteries was quite impressive already.

But surely Dumbledore had advisors? Colleagues he could ask for advice? Masters of other arts and other magics? But if he thought he knew enough, he might not bother.

Hermione looked up. Luna had packed her things, including her mother's notes, and was waiting patiently for Hermione to reach a conclusion.

"What do you think we should do, Luna?" Hermione asked.

Luna slowly smiled. "We should do what we have always done. There is no need for conclusions yet."

It took Hermione a minute to figure out what Luna was saying, but she was getting better at deciphering Luna-speak. "Do we have somewhere safe to keep it while we study it?" she finally asked.

Luna patted the Bag of Holding. "These have expansion, lightening, and magic damping charms, as well as seven-layered interference protection. It's safe enough." She frowned a moment, then held it out. "Perhaps you should keep it. I don't want it stolen."

Hermione took it. "I'll bury it in my trunk. If no one knows it's there, no one can take it." She turned to go, but stopped when she saw Luna hadn't moved. "Are you coming?"

Luna shook her head. "I have another task. You go on."

Hermione considered many responses—asking what it was, offering to help, reminding Luna that they were meeting on Tuesday before lunch—but in the end she just left, conscious of the weight of the horcrux in her bookbag.


	3. Chapter 3

Draco slipped along the hallway, hoping not to be seen. He'd barely been able to eat any of his dinner, and he knew Pansy was watching him closely. Professor Snape, too, had been keeping an annoyingly close eye on him this year.

Malfoys do not show weakness. Malfoys do not show nerves. Malfoys certainly do not push away their dinners because the stress and worry are so strong that they might vomit if they eat. Malfoys stand straight and tall, superior in all situations. When a Malfoy has undertaken a task, he completes it.

Malfoys do not get caught. They are the spiders secretly weaving the webs, not the hapless flies. (Except this spider's family was already stuck, weren't they? Draco and his parents were trapped into doing the Dark Lord's bidding. It was impossible, but the thought still recurred.)

He finally got to the seventh floor, and found the corridor empty. He paced back and forth in front of the blank wall, and slipped inside the door when it appeared, mentally asking the Room to hide the door from the outside.

The Room of Lost Things stretched out before him. He'd wondered sometimes what he might find if he investigated the piles, but he didn't have the time. Every second he could spare must be spent on his task—he lost enough time to classes and meals as it was.

Draco made his way to the partially repaired Vanishing Cabinet. The tunnel matrix was finally realigned, and he was starting to work on the destination valley.

"Hello, Draco Malfoy," said an airy voice behind him.

\------

Luna smiled serenely at the wand pointed at her. "Don't worry," she said, "you won't hurt me."

The wait had been long, but not unpleasant. Once she had Requested the arrangement she needed, which took a while, Luna made her way to the Vanishing Cabinet that was covered in recent magic. The Cabinet was broken, its harmonies out of tune, and Luna could hear the echoes of the spells used to fix it.

But in addition, she could also hear the jangling of other spells. Wakefulness Charms, and Focus Charms, and Steady-Hands Charms, and then, more menacing, Stinging Hexes and Insomnia Jinxes and even the horrifying echoes of a Crucio. All self-directed, since she could hear no other wand.

\----

Malfoys do not get caught. Draco wanted to scream in frustration. He'd been snuck up on by a floaty-looking girl younger than he was.

And here he was, caught in the Dark Lord's trap. Killing Dumbledore was glorious, of course, but it also seemed somehow messy and much better suited for someone (anyone) else. Letting Death Eaters into Hogwarts was necessary, but he'd seen the mess they'd made of his home. And his friends were all here. The Dark Lord might claim to value every drop of pure blood, but he hadn't stopped crazy Aunt Bella from using Crucio on him, either.

Faltering now was not an option. Draco knew his mother would die sobbing if he failed, and his father would live out his days in the misery of Azkaban. Lucius had trained him not to get caught, and Lucius had caught all three of them in this trap. Or Grandfather Abraxas had, in his lunacy. There was no way out.

It hadn't even been profitable, and Malfoys always did what was profitable. With his majority approaching and his father in jail, Draco had been given greater access to the family financial records. The Dark Lord's first rise had taken fifteen years and eaten nearly half of the vast Malfoy fortune. They'd sold properties and investments, liquidated jewelry and rare books. Lucius was a cunning investor, but even his best efforts had not repaired the damage.

The situation was worse this time. Back then, there had been more families contributing, but now the Dark Lord had lost access to the Black fortune, the Macnair vault was drained, and Draco's father had said once that the Dark Lord had been disinclined to demand money of the Lestranges. It looked to Draco like it would be him and Theo paying everything, this time. Even if they lived, how much money would be gone in a year? In five years? What if they won? Would they even have a home?

"Don't worry," the girl said. "You won't hurt me."

Draco put his head back and howled with hysterical laughter.

\---

Luna watched Draco Malfoy laugh. He had a brittle, jangling edge to him, like an unstable magical artifact, but sadly one cannot use a Poking Stick to safely handle humans. She hoped he would not start crying. Tears were always tricky.

Eventually he calmed down and slumped to the ground. Clearly it was time to say something, but she did not know what to say. Normally she would simply say whatever came to mind, but this conversation was important. She carefully considered several options, trying to imagine how Hermione would respond to each of them. It was difficult, as Hermione's responses were often unpredictable or nonsensical, but she was beginning to feel her way forward with Hermione, and perhaps the response pattern would translate.

"Why do you come here?" she eventually asked. Belatedly, she remembered that emotions flow on the level, and lowered herself to sit on the floor beside him.

"I have to fix the Vanishing Cabinet so the Dark Lord can kill you all," came the sneering reply.

"He does like to smash his biscuits," Luna replied. She wondered if she should have found something else to say, but Draco Malfoy just looked at her.

"He likes to smash everything. My home, my family, the whole bloody country," he said. He hauled himself back to his feet and turned towards the Vanishing Cabinet. "So what are you going to do now? Kill me? Call a teacher? You might as well do it."

Luna considered her options. Killing in cold blood was bad for the soul, and rather messy besides. She didn't have much reliance on the teachers. She could tell Hermione, but who knows what Hermione might do? Hermione was incalculable.

What did she, Luna, want? She had stayed to find out who was cursing themselves. To torture oneself was a queer violation of nature, and a wasteful one at that.

"I will stay with you," she finally decided.

He turned to stare at her, and she could not read his expression. "Why?"

"There is enough smashing done," she replied. She cleared a space on a nearby table, climbed up to sit on it cross-legged, and pulled out her books.

Draco Malfoy stared at her for a while longer before turning back to his work.

\------

Hermione buried the horcrux deep in her trunk, then cast every concealing charm she could think of on it. She covered it with an old sweater and layered a few jinxes on the sweater, just in case. It still didn't feel like enough.

She shut her trunk, locked it. Added three more locking charms and an alarm ward, and nearly added a few more jinxes before she remembered that her books were in there and she would need to get them out without spending ten minutes disarming her trunk. She carefully placed her wand on her bedside table and sat on her hands.

Clearly she needed a distraction. She'd finished all her homework already. The common room had been mostly empty when she went through it, so there were no first years to tutor. Most of her books were locked in her trunk, and she didn't want to open it just yet. She pulled out the notes from her project with Luna and spread them out.

Before they'd been distracted by horcruxes, she and Luna had agreed that the model they had was nearly complete. Harmonic factors would refine the shape and add complexity, but they should have enough information to make useful hypotheses about practical applications.

Magic is based on intent. Hermione had learned that her first day at Hogwarts, and had been told it at least a dozen times in the first week alone. Magic is based on intent, usually focused through either emotion or mental discipline. But Flow could not have intent; the state of Flow was entirely focused on the absorbing activity that triggered it. There was no intent there.

Yet Luna had worked magic in a state of Flow, so it must be possible.

One page, a drawing of the graphical model, caught Hermione's eye. It looked rather like a jellyfish, with a complicated spring inside a translucent shell, and long tendrils spilling out across the page. Hermione had projected the three-dimensional version in the Room of Requirement, and Luna had stroked the tendrils, commenting, "Such nice long strings, ready to catch and tangle."

Entanglement. Hermione remembered her mother talking about entanglement, how two subatomic particles could be entangled and affect each other from across the universe. It was called "spooky action at a distance," and Hermione's father had loved that name.

Luna didn't usually talk nonsense when they were discussing magical theory. Could her comment have been serious? Could Flow somehow tangle with....something....to produce tangible magical results?

Another Luna quote: "Meditation only shapes the mind." And the mind can shape magic.

Hermione grabbed a blank sheet and began to scribble furiously.

\-----

Draco looked up at Luna. For a week now, she'd been coming to sit with him while he worked. Sometimes she did her homework, sometimes she sat and told him stories, sometimes (like now) she carefully explored the piles of junk in the Room of Lost Things. He'd continued to work on fixing the Vanishing Cabinet, and she didn't seem to care that he was working to doom the school.

Sometimes she asked him questions, and he found himself answering with far more honesty than he would ever have expected. Malfoys don't answer questions, but he answered hers.

He'd occasionally toyed with the idea of hiding her somehow, warning her when he was close and locking her into some remote unused classroom, letting her out when it was safe. If it was ever safe. Once he let the Death Eaters into the school, they might never leave.

If he didn't, his family would die.

"You used the Insomnia Jinx once," she said, from right by his elbow. Draco jumped, startled; she could move remarkably quietly when she wanted.

"It kept me awake for thirty-seven hours, but I was hallucinating for most of them. I couldn't get any work done," he explained. He wasn't surprised now that she knew what he'd cast. Everyone knew you could sense the echoes of magic if you focused, but her sensitivity was unusually strong.

She touched his sleeve. "The Puggling Gobbers need their space," she said seriously.

He smiled slightly. He found he didn't mind her odd creatures and nonsensical sayings, mostly because he was fairly certain there was truth underneath them if you worked to uncover it. "Thank you," he replied quietly, and turned back to his work.

She left shortly after that. He'd thought all along that she shouldn't stay, was crazy for staying, but he found he missed her when she was gone.

But that was ridiculous. Malfoys don't miss anyone.

\----

Hermione looked around the library. Luna had been busy lately, and they hadn't been able to meet to work on their project. Hermione had tried asking why Luna was so busy, but Luna had looked even vaguer than usual and, after some consideration, replied that she thought she was catching foxes.

Hermione flipped through her notes on combining Flow with deliberate meditation. She wished she could have Luna check her calculations, but she was tired of waiting. It was time to try something.

She carefully laid out her study materials, then set a timer. She would spend five minutes meditating on the Lumos charm, and then she would throw herself into her schoolwork. If there was a flash of light when she hit the Flow state, she'd be the first person to deliberately cast magic using Flow.


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione was getting frustrated. Two weeks of experiments, with nothing to show for it. She'd tried to cast Lumos by meditating on charms, transfiguration, arithmancy tables, runes, wand movements, even emotions. Nothing had happened.

On the other hand, she and Luna had finally found a time to meet. She showed Luna her calculations and waited patiently while Luna read through her experimental lack of results.

Luna set the parchment down and looked straight at Hermione, speaking slowly. "Passion at a distance."

"Yes, exactly, I was inspired by the concept of quantum entanglement...." Hermione trailed off, as she realized what Luna was telling her. "Passion at a distance" wasn't just another name for quantum entanglement. It was an emotional state, implying longing and need.

"You think this won't work for minor charms like Lumos. It has to be something that I truly desire to have happen."

Luna pulled up their model of Flow and added a new harmonic element to the equation. On the projected three-dimensional model, a new spiral wrapped itself around the twisted center.

"Passion sings in tune," Luna explained.

Hermione grinned as she examined the change. "And passion amplifies the power element! Flow doesn't have an emotional component, so there wasn't anything to explain the power levels we saw, but passion is a much stronger amplifier!"

Luna nodded and showed Hermione her notes, with other harmonic factors she had considered. They spent a pleasant hour refining and tweaking their model. As they were packing up, Luna picked up Hermione's list of experiments.

"You haven't tried Venitian flow diagrams," she observed.

"Do you think they would work better? I don't understand them well. Professor Vector mentioned them in class once, but when I tried to look them up I couldn't find very much."

Luna nodded and handed the notes back.

Hermione put them away. "Have you considered further what we should do about the horcrux? I confess I don't really like having it in my trunk."

Luna cocked her head thoughtfully. "We know very little about it," she said.

"Well, perhaps I'll bring it next time, and we can run some tests," Hermione suggested.

\----

"I need a copy of _Venitian Flow Basics_ ," Luna said.

Draco glanced at her, puzzled. She must have learned flow diagrams growing up, just as he had, but she wouldn't ask for a reference book without reason. He knew by now how hard she had to work to make an explicit request like that one.

"You can borrow my copy, if you like," he offered. "Why do you need it?"

"Educated bees won't produce honey," she replied.

Draco frowned. "Well, you can borrow it if you want," he repeated. "I'm surprised they don't have a copy in the library."

Luna looked at him, and Draco remembered that she'd complained before about all the things not taught at Hogwarts. She probably wasn't surprised at all.

"The frustrating thing," Draco said suddenly, "is that the Dark Lord doesn't respect the old magics either. Father has complained for years that mudbloods don't understand magic, and Dumbledore can't be bothered to teach them, but the Dark Lord doesn't understand magic either! Father warned me never to mention flow diagrams to him, or basic potion ingredient classification, or even mind clearing. He'll research powerful rituals, of course, but it's like he's forgotten everything he learned as a child, and doesn't want us to learn them either."

"Perhaps he's been infected with Bandersnatches," Luna commented.

Draco smiled. "Perhaps. It just doesn't seem that anyone is interested in preserving the basic knowledge that purebloods have guarded for centuries."

\-----

The next time they met, both girls were carrying bulky packages. Hermione put her down as soon as she got into the Room and looked at it with every evidence of distaste.

"I know it can't affect me in any way, but I still don't like carrying that thing."

"It does tend to attract Glumphers and Dark Fae," Luna agreed, and handed Hermione the book she had brought.

Hermione read the title and gasped in delight. "Just what I needed! How did you find it?"

"It was where it always is," Luna answered, and moved away to complete her preparations.

Hermione began flipping through, excitedly reading about Venitian flow diagrams and their uses. After a few minutes, she looked up and discovered that Luna had requested a different arrangement than their usual one. There was a copper circle set into the floor, and Luna was carefully pouring salt in a smaller circle in the center of the copper one.

"What are you doing, Luna?" Hermione asked.

"Making it safe," Luna replied firmly.

Hermione blinked at her. "Are we doing some sort of ritual magic today?"

Luna examined her circle, using her wand to make a few measurements to check for symmetry. "We need to know more than we do," she explained.

Hermione crouched down to look at the copper circle. There were no runes or decorations on it, just a smooth band of metal. "Is this what you do when you're exploring with your father?"

"Scrying is too intimate. Today we'll call for a ghostwriter."

"I've never heard of a ghostwriter," Hermione said carefully. "Except the muggle kind, of course, but you don't need a ritual for those."

"Then you will discover them today," Luna replied. She placed parchment, ink, and a tin of rolled tobacco leaves on the ground in the copper circle, and nodded in satisfaction.

"You must stay focused, Hermione," Luna said seriously, looking Hermione in the eye. "The ghostwriter must write about the horcrux and nothing else."

Hermione nodded. "Is there anything else I need to do? I've never done this sort of ritual."

"No. Just stay focused," Luna replied. When Hermione nodded again, Luna went over and unwrapped the Bag of Holding. Using her Poking Stick, she carefully deposited the horcrux into the center of the salt circle.

Hermione relaxed. The horcrux had seemed to carry a thick, oppressive atmosphere with it while it was out of the bag, but the salt circle contained it and she couldn't feel it anymore. She made a mental note to research ritual circles and perhaps practice making them, if she could find a safe way of doing so....

Her thoughts broke off suddenly as she realized Luna was seated by the copper circle with her eyes scrunched shut. She was supposed to be focusing! Hermione hurried to sit opposite Luna and focus on their need to know about the horcrux.

After a few minutes, the light in the room turned greenish, and a tiny being appeared in the copper circle. He was green and bearded and had a long feather stuck behind each ear, with more in a quiver strapped to his back.

He looked around and scowled at Luna, and she opened her eyes and glared back at him. After a moment he seemed to resign himself. He pounced on the tobacco, stuffing a tiny morsel of it into his mouth and secreting the rest of the tin (which was nearly as big as he was) inside his clothes somehow. Then he unrolled the parchment, dipped one of his feathers into the ink, and began to circle the horcrux, chewing thoughtfully on his tobacco.

Hermione's mind was buzzing with questions and observations, but she did her best to stay focused. She could ask Luna later, and perhaps Luna would have another book for her to read. Right now they needed to know about the horcrux.

Twenty minutes later, the ghostwriter finished writing on the parchment (his writing had looked more like dancing than writing, as he waltzed with the feather and wrote words bigger than he was) and vanished, taking the ink with him. Luna smiled and stretched out her legs.

"Is it safe to read it now?" Hermione asked.

"Of course," Luna replied, though she herself got up and drifted away, examining the bare walls thoughtfully.

Hermione read the notes out loud. "It says this is a horcrux created by Tom Marvolo Riddle in the fourth new moon of 1957. He murdered a woman named Renata Fenwick to do it, and gave up his love of knowledge....I remember something about sacrificing part of yourself in the ritual, but what made him give that up?....anyway, it's made from the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, but we know that, and it gives some details about the diadem....it says that there are four others like it. He has five horcruxes, Luna. Is that possible?"

"He's a terribly boring Dark Lord. We'll just have to come against him another way."

Hermione looked up. "Is there another way?"

Luna shrugged. "We haven't looked for one yet."

"That's true, I suppose. Though I can't imagine anything else that would be effective. We should probably also look for the other horcruxes—do you think we can find them using this one?"

"Perhaps." Luna carefully packed the horcrux up again, and Hermione joined her in putting the notes away and vanishing the salt. They both felt tired from the effort of concentration, and went to bed soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read a story once that had it that wizarding children learn to clear their minds and basic meditation at a very early age, to help them control their accidental magic, so that Snape was actually trying to teach Harry Occlumency and had simply forgotten that muggle-raised Harry wouldn't have learned it. So that's what Draco was referring to. (I go back and forth on whether Snape was trying to do anything useful or just being a bully. Either one seems possible.)
> 
> I believe it is my own original headcanon that the creation of a horcrux requires a sacrifice of some part of your personality. The diary got his youthful ideals, the ring got his desire for a family (which contributed to Dumbledore's mistake), the diadem got his love of knowledge and learning (he was coming back from leveling up and thought he didn't need it anymore), the cup got his sensuality (and contributed to Bellatrix's sadism), the locket got his ability to understand others (which is why he promptly made such a mistake with Regulus, and why is manipulated Harry and Ron so well), Harry got his intuitive understanding of magic (that was an accident), and Nagini got his ability to plan (also an accident, as his soul was pretty frayed by then, but it explains some of his more bone-headed ideas). It's a theory.
> 
> (It is not my original headcanon that Harry isn't carrying a horcrux, but something horcrux-ish, but I still believe that too. For the purposes of this story it doesn't matter.)


	5. Chapter 5

Draco stretched his arms and back. This wasn't working. The locution echo had oscillated into a cascading failure and he barely kept the entire Cabinet from blowing up. He couldn't see how to fix it at all.

But he had to fix it. He had to. There must be a way.

He glanced over at Luna, who had been hard at work from the moment she'd arrived. Her face was scrunched up and she was chewing on the end of a quill as she stared at the book in front of her. At first he'd assumed she had homework, but she usually completed her homework faster than this. She must be working on a private research project.

The late afternoon sun glinted off her hair, and she looked entirely absorbed in whatever she was reading. Draco shifted closer to get a look at the page.

Horcruxes. A cold-hot flood of fear/anger/panic washed over him. Before he'd consciously thought about it, he'd knocked the book from her hands.

"What are you doing???" he yelled, grabbing her shoulders and hauling her around to look at him.

Luna stared back, eyes wide.

"You can't....you can't pursue that stuff!!! You don't know how dangerous it is!" He broke off, breathing rapidly.

"The Dark Lord," she began, but he interrupted her.

"No! You can't fight the Dark Lord with soul magic! It's poison! You can't!" he yelled.

"Draco, I know that," Luna said, slowly and clearly.

Draco took a deep breath, calming himself. His hands were still gripping her shoulders. Carefully he eased them down to rest on her hands, still folded in her lap. "Then why are you studying that filth?" he asked.

Luna blinked at him. "The Dark Lord has horcruxes."

"Merlin." Draco staggered back, rubbed his face with his hands. "Horcruxes? More than one? Merlin, Circe, and Methuselah."

Luna nodded. She got off the table to pick up her book from the floor.

Draco was still stunned. "How do you....no, don't tell me. Don't tell me anything." He had a sudden vision of the Dark Lord seeing Luna in his mind, hunting her down, tearing her limb from limb for daring to oppose him. "I can't know. If the Dark Lord found out...don't tell me anything."

Luna nodded again. "What do you know about them?" she asked.

Draco shuddered. "Not much. Grandfather Abraxas pursued soul magic during the last part of his life. It drove him insane. Occasionally he'd have normal days and be allowed to come to tea, but other days... I could hear him howling from across the house. Father said I should remember that sound and never study soul magic."

"Did he make a horcrux?" Luna asked softly, reaching out to touch the back of his hand.

"That's how he died. He tried to make one, and it backfired somehow. My father wouldn't tell me anything else. He'd seen the ritual chamber, and whatever was there...it shook him. And he isn't easily shaken."

Draco shook off the memory of the fear in his father's eyes and refocused on the slight girl in front of him. "I'll send you some books. They might help, and if I have an elf deliver them no one will know. They'll be on your bed."

Luna shook her head. "Not my bed. The Nargles might get them."

Draco sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Fair enough. There's a hiding place behind the statue of Scylla the Gravid on the third floor. I'll leave them there, under a concealing charm. Just...don't tell me anything."

\-----

Hermione closed the book, fuming again. Venitian flow diagrams turned out to be an elegant and nuanced way to approach magic, and it had been denied to her for the last six years! She wasn't sure whether to be more annoyed at Dumbledore, for not including books like this one in the library, or at the pureblood culture that mocked her for not owning it already.

She set aside the flow diagrams she had made for Lumos and a few other spells. They were useful practice, but for experimenting with Flow she needed a goal she cared about. Turning on a light wouldn't inspire passion.

As Hermione filed her notes, another folder caught her eye. Hermione had stopped asking Luna about Felicia Urquhart, since it obviously upset Luna, but that didn't mean she'd given up. Felicia still deserved to be punished.

Hermione opened the folder, narrowing her eyes. There had to be something she could do.

\-----------

Draco flexed his hand, cramped from writing a Transfiguration essay as quickly as possible. There was no time to spare. Malfoys do not fail.

He missed having Luna nearby. It would be nice to discuss Merton's Law of Transfusion with her, or ask what she was working on and discuss that.

But Luna only came to sit with him in the Room of Lost Things. And he had three more essays to write.

\-----------

"More ritual magic?" Hermione asked, coming into the Room of Requirement and seeing Luna setting up the circles again.

Luna nodded. "You should check me," she said, pointing to two large sheets of parchment on the floor by her bag.

Hermione fished the horcrux out of her bag and placed it on the ground near Luna's circle, then sat and examined Luna's parchments. The first was a page clearly copied from a book written in Middle English. The second appeared to be a translation, which detailed a ritual by which a wizard could locate a horcrux which had been stolen by an enemy. The third was a jumble of poetry, sketches of strange plants and animals, and arithmantic calculations. Hermione read through it, twice.

"You've adapted this ritual to find the other horcruxes?" Hermione asked.

Luna smiled briefly. "Ready or not, here we come."

An hour later, Hermione was staring at her notes in horror. The other horcruxes were a cup in a Gringotts vault, a snake, Voldemort himself, and Harry. "I can't believe it. Poor Harry."

"The Wrackspurts do seem to follow him," Luna said calmly, sweeping up the salt from the ritual.

"'Marked as his equal.' I should have known this was coming," Hermione muttered, standing up and beginning to pace.

Luna looked up, watching her calmly.

Hermione stopped suddenly. "Luna, there's something I'd like your perspective on, but it's a secret. Can I trust you not to tell anyone?"

Luna smiled briefly. "There's none so deaf as those who will not hear."

Hermione snorted. "Fair enough. Listen. The fight we had at the Ministry last year? It was about a prophecy, a prophecy about Harry and Voldemort." She recited the prophecy for Luna.

Luna sat quietly, thinking.

Hermione began to pace again. "It's just...Harry's trapped. He's always been trapped. Voldemort marked him as an equal, and now he can't get away."

"Hermione," Luna said, staring intently at her, "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Hermione stared back, thinking. "You mean to say...if Voldemort has trapped Harry, Harry can trap Voldemort?"

Luna nodded, her eyes luminous. "Equal and opposite reaction."

\---------

There it was: in the back of the society section, a note that Madam Felicia Rackharrow had been badly burned at a party when her jewelry suddenly heated up. She'd been admitted to St. Mungo's but was expected to make a full recovery.

Hermione smirked. She'd recover, yes, but it would happen again. Every time she used something that didn't belong to her, in fact. The spell had been quite tricky to work out, but Hermione had checked it five times and made sure to get it right. It had worked.

"You were absolutely right about the flow diagrams," she told Luna the next time they met, passing over her notes and the newspaper clipping. She waited while Luna read them carefully.

Luna looked up, and Hermione grinned at her. "We've discovered an entirely new form of magic! I've officially cast deliberate magic using Flow!"

Luna looked again at the clipping. "I always knew the Bilbotubers were after her," she said.

Hermione laughed and threw her arms around Luna. "And they finally caught up with her!"

Luna relaxed and smiled and hugged her back.

After a few minutes, they calmed down again. "The other interesting thing," Hermione said, conjuring their glass boards and copying her model onto it, "is that Felicia has all sorts of protective magics on her. Magic done with Flow seems to be an entirely new approach, and there's no way to ward against it yet."

"You think we can trap the untrappable," Luna concluded.

"I think probably Harry can trap the untrappable, assuming you mean Voldemort. He already has a connection to Voldemort, and I'm pretty sure we can find a way to exploit that."

"If he enters Flow, he can find the connection and follow it home."

"Right. So we should probably work out what the spell will do. Then we have the hard part—teaching Harry to understand Venitian flow diagrams. I could explain it, but I'm not sure I know how to communicate it in a way he'd understand. And you..."

Luna smiled. "My harmonies resonate on a different plane."

"Yeah. So how do we teach Harry to use Flow?"


	6. Chapter 6

"I-I need your help."

Draco lowered his wand and turned to Luna. She'd been tense ever since she arrived, and her tension had been itching at him the whole time. She wasn't supposed to be tense. "With your schoolwork?" he asked, knowing it probably wasn't that.

She shook her head. "With explaining. I'm too transparent, and nobody understands that which he cannot see. And Hermione is incalculable as fog, and makes a poor guide."

"You need me to explain something to someone? Someone who won't listen to you or Granger?"

Luna shrugged. "Will listen. Won't hear."

"Right. Okay." Draco stepped forward and conjured a chair so he could sit next to Luna. "What do you need me to explain, and to whom?"

Luna took a deep breath and relaxed from her tense posture. "Venitian flow diagrams, to Harry Potter."

"What?" Draco jumped up, flinging his hands into the air. "You want me to explain basic magical theory to Potter of all people?"

"Someone must."

Draco took a deep breath. She wouldn't ask if it weren't important. "Why?"

"It may be an ending."

"An ending to what?"

"An ending to the ending, of course."

Draco looked at Luna, who was serene once more, the sunlight golden on her hair and silver in her eyes. Her request was preposterous, her reasoning inscrutable. He wanted nothing to do with Potter. If the Dark Lord found out, he might die.

Of course, if things continued as they were, he'd probably die anyway.

Malfoys don't do this. Malfoys don't show weakness, and they don't trust others, and they don't give favors. Malfoys don't help.

But this was Luna, and Luna broke all the rules.

He nodded. "Okay. I'll help."

\-----------

"Luna has my wand; I can't hex you even if I want to," Draco announced as soon as the door opened.

Hermione, standing in the doorway, blinked once or twice and glanced at Luna sitting by the window before coming the rest of the way in. "Harry isn't here yet. What are you doing here?"

Draco folded his arms. "Luna wants me to explain Venitian flow diagrams to Potter, which she thinks I'll do better than either of you."

"I was going to try teaching him myself...but of course you're welcome to help, if Luna thinks it will be a good idea," Hermione replied doubtfully, coming in and putting her bookbag down.

"Granger, your theory will all be over his head and you know it. I learned this stuff as a child; let me teach it."

Hermione pressed her lips together, then nodded. "Okay. That's fine. Did Luna explain what we're doing? Our plan—"

"Stop!" Draco grabbed her wrist before she could open her notebook. "With one thing and another, it's better if I don't know. I know Potter needs to understand flow diagrams, and that's all."

Hermione's eyes widened, but she stepped back and put down her notebook. "Okay then. And, um, thanks, I guess. Harry will be here soon."

Just then, the door opened again, and Harry came in. As soon as he saw Draco, he pulled out his wand. "What's he doing here?" he demanded.

Hermione began talking quickly. "I told you we have a plan, Harry. In order for it to work, you need to understand a piece of magical theory called Venitian flow diagrams, understand it really well, I mean. Malfoy is going to teach it to you. He learned it as a kid, he probably knows it even better than I do."

Draco sneered at that but stayed silent.

Harry narrowed his eyes at Draco. "Why?"

Draco was about to snarl back, but he felt a hand gently wrap around his arm. Luna had come up to stand next to him. He took a deep breath. "My reasons are my own, Potter. I'm not going to tell them to you. I can't betray your plan because I haven't let Granger tell me anything about it, and I gave Luna my wand so I can't hex you. That will have to be enough for both of us."

Harry raised his eyebrows at the sight of Luna's hand on Draco's arm. He glanced at Hermione. "I still don't trust him."

"I'll be here the whole time, Harry," she replied. "If he tries anything, we'll stop him. But Luna is really good at finding the right resources, and if she thinks you can learn from Malfoy, she's probably right."

Harry sighed. "Alright then, Malfoy. Where do we start?"

\------------

A week later, the four of them met on the empty Quidditch pitch in the mid-afternoon. Harry and Draco carried their broomsticks, and Hermione's bookbag was bulkier than usual.

"You've been meditating on the flow diagram I gave you, Harry?" Hermione asked. She and Luna would be supporting the ritual, but Harry had to be the one to release the actual magic.

Harry nodded. "I translated it into a Quidditch play like Malfoy showed me, and followed it through in my mind. Even flew it a few times. If I ruin the match with Ravenclaw, it's because of your bloody diagram."

Hermione looked at Draco, puzzled. "Quidditch plays?"

Draco shrugged. "It's how my father taught me."

"The flowers are opening," Luna said, gazing up at the sky.

"Right, we should get started," Hermione decided.

"Hang on, I'm not supposed to be here, remember?" Draco said, startled.

Hermione looked at him. "It'll work much better if you're here. You don't have to know anything, just fly with Harry."

Draco was about to argue when Luna picked up his hand and began tracing the lines on his palm. "Time moves forward," she said softly.

Hermione repressed a grin as she set down her bookbag. "I want you two to fly some Seeker drills. It doesn't really matter which ones, as long as you keep going and stay focused and relaxed."

Draco looked puzzled. "You just want us to fly random drills?"

Hermione nodded. "For starters, yes. Luna and I are going to play some music. Harry, when you feel it grow, move into the play you diagrammed, and remember to focus on the feel of flying more than the movements." Hermione pulled a tiny piano out of her bookbag and tapped it to reverse the shrinking charm, and handed Luna her flute.

Harry and Draco looked at each other, shrugged, and mounted their brooms. "Archthwhistle's Circuit?" Harry suggested, and Draco nodded.

Luna began to play a flowing, unpredictable melody, and Hermione joined her on piano. The music flowed between them as they took turns with the lead and harmony parts.

Harry and Draco began the drill, and soon forgot the music in the enjoyment of flying with a skilled partner. They had flown against each other often enough that flying together now felt surprisingly natural, and the steps of the drill followed each other smoothly.

As they continued, Harry noticed distantly that the music had gotten more intense. The air began to feel heavy with magic. Without conscious thought, Harry shifted into the diagrammed play, and his body began to glow faintly as he flowed through the movements. Draco allowed himself to drift down to the ground, staring intently.

Hermione modulated up a step and heard Luna follow her. The weeks of practice had paid off, and she felt more confident now than she had before. The air was shimmering around them, and the music spun higher, entwining with Harry's movements and the air and the light and the stars.

Suddenly a burning light filled the stadium, blindingly bright. Harry jerked to a stop, worried that something had gone wrong and triggered an explosion, but the light vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving all of them blinking. Harry carefully descended, stars still in his eyes.

They could mostly see normally again by the time Harry touched down near Draco. Harry saw that Draco looked as bewildered as Harry felt, but Hermione was grinning from ear to ear as she raced over to them. "We did it!" she shouted.

"What did we do?" Harry asked.

Luna bounded across the grass and kissed Draco gently on the cheek, her eyes shining. "We made an ending," she replied.

\------------

Narcissa Malfoy followed Severus Snape into the Dark Lord's chambers and shut the door behind her. Bellatrix hadn't said much, just that Snape must attend on the Dark Lord, but there was an undercurrent of worry in her voice, and anything that worried Bellatrix was probably worth hearing.

The Dark Lord was sprawled across the chaise lounge, staring at nothing.

"What happened?" Snape asked, surveying the scene.

"I don't know. We were discussing his great vision for the future, and suddenly he screamed and collapsed," Bellatrix replied, stroking the Dark Lord's hand lovingly.

"Hmmm." Snape stepped forward. He touched the Dark Lord's wrist, chest, and neck, then looked into his eyes. Straightening, he waved his wand over the Dark Lord in increasingly complicated patterns. Narcissa recognized the first two as diagnostic spells, but not the others.

Snape seemed to think deeply, then suddenly lifted his head and stared intently at a spot on the wall opposite. He scowled and raised his wand.

" _Avada Kedavra_!"

Bellatrix fell, dead. Snape had twitched his wand at the last moment so that his spell hit her.

Snape turned his wand on Narcissa, still standing by the door. He raised his eyebrow.

Narcissa spread her hands, palms up. "I take it the Dark Lord is dead?" she asked.

"Not dead, no, but bound in some way I cannot begin to unravel. His magic, mind, and will are all trapped."

"Very well." Narcissa drew her wand. The Dark Lord had gotten her husband imprisoned by sending him on a fool's errand, intended to kill her son, and filled her house with scum and villainy. She had no doubt that this was the best outcome possible. "Let's clean the house."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of Draco and Luna together has fascinated me for some time, partly because it's really quite unlikely. Draco here is (very loosely) modeled on a dynamic I've noticed in my own marriage. My husband is very organized and conscientious and excellent at logistics, and I am very much not any of those things. It has amused me over the years how often he will come home ranting about someone screwing up in a way that we both know I have screwed up plenty of times - but he doesn't mind it when I do it. It's as if, at some point while we were dating, he made a little space in his head that is labeled with my name, where none of the usual rules apply. It's a very comforting feeling.


	7. Chapter 7

Harry, Hermione, Luna, and Draco passed Professor Snape as he was coming away from the Headmaster's office. Hermione noticed that for once he didn't sneer or scowl at them, just watched them pass with an inscrutable expression.

"Thank you for coming," Dumbledore said as they filed into his office. "I've received a most surprising report. It seems that Voldemort was affected by an unknown magic this afternoon and has been rendered entirely powerless. I believe it was at the very moment that a hugely powerful and mysterious spell burst forth from our Quidditch pitch."

Draco raised his brows. The magic must have worked, though he still couldn't imagine how.

"Harry, can you shed any light on this?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry shifted nervously in his seat. "Hermione and Luna came up with a plan, sir. I don't really understand it, to be honest, but they had me study a particular spell and then run Seeker training drills with Malfoy."

Dumbledore looked at Hermione, astonished. "Miss Granger?"

"It's a new theory that Luna and I have been working on," Hermione explained. "Well, a new form of magic, really. It's based on the muggle concept of Flow, which is an immersive state of energized focus and enjoyment. I have the calculations if you'd like to see them. The spell we used should have locked Voldemort's mind, will, and magic into a penta-modulated internal prison."

"I see." Dumbledore steepled his fingers, and continued, "Well, Miss Granger, that was a very foolhardy thing to do. I must strongly advise against meddling with unknown forms of magic in the future—"

"You have such a well-organized mind, Headmaster," Luna cut in. Everyone stared at her in surprise, but she continued calmly. "All the fluttering pretties neatly pinned in their boxes, carefully labeled and stacked so tightly that not even the Hulking Pictsies can add to the collection."

Luna took a step forward, gazing around the room. "You have organized the school so well, so tidily. You decided what was worth knowing, and lined it up in regiments, and built your knowledge into a mighty fortress from which there is no escape. Within your fortress you found solace, and self-assurance, and complacency.

"You have been slow to think and quick to decide." She leaned over his desk and stared straight into his eyes.

"I am almost annoyed with you, Headmaster."

The room was silent. Dumbledore seemed at a loss for words.

Luna leaned back, sighed softly, and turned towards the door. Draco, Harry and Hermione quietly followed her out, leaving Dumbledore speechless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end. I hope you enjoyed it! I'm not sure I've seen a fic before where Luna is the one to deliver a "the reason you suck" speech to Dumbledore, so that's my new claim to fame.


End file.
